Raveena can’t believe her luckRakhee Gupta
MUCH has been said and written
about Raveena Tandon walking away with the national award for playing
the battered wife in Kalpana Lajmi’s ‘Daman’. The general allusion
was that she had used her "political connections" to snatch
the best actress trophy away from other contenders like Tabu and Karisma
Kapoor.

Return of yesteryear heroinesArun Roy
WHAT makes heroines of yesteryears
apply greasepaint and face the camera once again? "Just like that,"
replies Neetu Singh, Rishi Kapoor’s wife who is taking the plunge back in
tinsel town after almost 20 years with a couple of big screen offers. "I
haven’t said ‘yes’ to either.

MUCH
has been said and written about
Raveena Tandon walking away with the national award for playing the
battered wife in Kalpana Lajmi’s ‘Daman’. The general allusion was
that she had used her "political connections" to snatch the
best actress trophy away from other contenders like Tabu and Karisma
Kapoor.

Director Lajmi has
stood up for Raveena through this controversy: "Of course, it’s a
terrific role, but you have to give it to the actress in her for
carrying the film completely on her shoulders. She worked very hard and
followed her heart in areas where she felt inadequate."

But there can be no
overlooking the fact that most film lovers, including her very ardent
fans, are still shocked at Bollywood’s perennial showgirl claiming the
highest acting award in the country. Many say that Raveena herself could
not believe her luck when the announcement was made.

After all, little of
her previous work is of any consequence whatsoever. She may have made a
few heads turn with her no-glamour look in films like ‘Ghulam-e-Mustafa’
and ‘Shool’, but she is yet to be mentioned in the same breath as
Kajol, Tabu or even Karisma.

After years of nothing
but song-and-dance sequences and assembly line portrayals, Raveena had
just about perfected the art of Bollywood’s ‘item’ numbers. In
fact, there isn’t anyone who can match her formidable oeuvre as a
stage show artiste that began with ‘Patthar Ke Phool’ almost a
decade ago.

The high point of her
career came with that wondrous waist-wiggle in ‘Mohra’ (‘Tu cheez
badi hai mast mast...’) and she went on to be the flavour of the
sizzling season with whistle-in-the-dark song items like ‘Shehr Ki
Ladki’ (‘Rakshak’), ‘Ore Ore’ (‘Ziddi’) and ‘Kisi Disco
Main Jaye’ (‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’).

Somewhere down the
line, Raveena became Govinda’s perfect dance partner, matching ‘jhatka’
for ‘matka’ and ‘mirchi’ for ‘masala’... before the
transformation came. She realised there’s more to the muse than the
midriff and came up with starrers like ‘Aunty No 1’ and ‘Gharwali
Baharwali’.

Her father, filmmaker
Ravi Tandon, had no desire to see his darling daughter going through
this routine. But Raveena had other plans. She convinced her father and
brother (a failed actor himself) to allow her to give showbiz a shot,
especially after she broke up with her boyfriend, Akshay Kumar.

It was a decision that
the family does not regret now. "My parents have always been my
strength and have given me the go-ahead to do anything I believe
in," Raveena was quoted as saying soon after the announcement of
the national award.

Over the years, the
girl has grown to become a darling of the media, thanks mostly to the
fodder she provides — which has mostly to do with her quotable quotes.
She denies affairs, confirms some, spews venom at colleagues, professes
undying loyalty to others, and so on.

The truth is that
barring "personal relationships" with the likes of Ajay Devgan,
Sunny Deol and Akshay Kumar, Raveena has stayed good friends with most
of her male co-stars. Experience has obviously taught her to stay
romantically uninvolved with anybody in the film industry at the moment.

Sunil Shetty says she’s
"one of the most sporting girls in the business — someone you can
just be yourself with". Govinda describes her as a "co-star
who keeps me on my feet with witty one-liners" and Jackie Shroff
insists "she’s just like one of the boys".

The controversy over
her bagging the national award had initially upset her. But she is now
back in her elements: "I am quite satisfied my name has been
cleared from this mess. I cannot be bothered what the motivations were
behind the controversy. I would rather just celebrate my win!"

WHAT
makes heroines of yesteryears apply greasepaint and face the camera once
again?

"Just like that,"
replies Neetu Singh, Rishi Kapoor’s wife who is taking the plunge back in
tinsel town after almost 20 years with a couple of big screen offers. "I
haven’t said ‘yes’ to either. But with the kids grown up and I don’t
have much to do at home. I don’t see why I shouldn’t get back to
work."

"Working after so many
years has automatically helped me chalk out a ‘me-time’ for myself,"
says Anita Raaj, who made a comeback recently with two successful tele-serials,
‘Aashiqui’ and ‘Eena Meena Dika’. "I can’t say it gives me a
lot of artistic satisfaction, but it certainly keeps me busy."

Poonam Dhillon has also
returned to the small screen with a health programme, ‘The Chust Durust Show’.
That almost all her family members are in the medical profession has certainly
helped and for the production unit, she is a "doctor by proxy".

Then there are actresses like
Rati Agnihotri and Reena Roy whose comeback dreams are not limited to the
television only. While Reena appeared recently in J.P. Dutta’s ‘Refugee’,
Rati was seen playing mother in ‘Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi’.

Says Rati: "I don’t
mind playing mother to a teenaged kid on screen simply because I actually have
a teenaged son myself. Besides, screen mothers have undergone a lot of change
since my time. You can be a smart, self-sufficient career woman wearing
trousers as I did in ‘Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi’."

Agrees Reena: "You do
not necessarily have to drape a six yard saree around you and appear as the
all-sacrificing and teary-eyed sort if you are to play the mother. This is a
cool generation — the kind when a teenager can tell his mother to ‘chill
out’."

Most comebacks have not been successful
though. Mumtaz’s was one glaring disaster. So was Salma Agha’s. Clearly,
audiences were not prepared to see their one-time dream girls deglamourised
into matronly women — a reason that still prevents the likes of Zeenat Aman
from returning to the silver screen.

JUST
when critics had finished writing obituaries of his film career, he has hopped,
skipped and jumped onto the charts again. The star is back with a bang after the
national award for ‘Pukar’.

But there’s a difference.
Though in ‘Pukar’ he was the main lead, over the past few years Anil Kapoor
has been comfortable playing the second hero as in ‘Biwi No. 1’ and ‘Taal’
— the loser who gracefully gives away the girl in the end. "I have to do
roles which suit my age and personality.

"I have to market myself
correctly," says Kapoor. And that’s been his strength throughout his 18
years as Bollywood’s leading man. He has learnt to adapt. In all his hit films
like ‘Woh Saat Din’, ‘Mashaal’, ‘Eeshwar’, ‘Ram Lakhan’, ‘Tezaab’,
‘Mr India’, ’, ‘Beta’, ‘Viraasat’ and ‘Taal’ he has seldom
repeated a role.

Indeed, at 43, Anil Kapoor has
joined the ranks of stars whose presence in the films makes all the difference
between a hit and a flop.

Not the end

Back
in the seventies, when ‘Mera Naam Joker’ bombed at the box office, Raj
Kapoor didn’t make any excuses. He simply said that in the film business, like
in life, no one tries to fall. Failures just happen.

The words must ring true for
Juhi Chawla, one of India’s most successful stars, who has scored an
unenviable double-duck in ‘Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’ and ‘One Two Ka
Four’.

So is it the beginning of the
end for Juhi? Yes, say Bollywood watchers. After her marriage to Jai Mehta and a
baby, Juhi herself has not been signing any new film and instead is hurriedly
completing the three big projects on hand, ‘Kashmakash’, ‘Yahoo’ and ‘Ek
Rishta’. She is a very intelligent girl and knows that with a husband and a
baby she may no longer be able to compete with stars like Aishwariya Rai, Priety
Zinta, Karishma and Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee. But she is confident that
with a choice of sensible roles she could make a comeback as a thinking man’s
actress.

Doing his thing

It’s
a filmi situation dreams are made of — to have the luxury of saying no to
roles and indulge one’s creative instincts. Aamir Khan is one of those lucky
stars who have got the embarrassment of riches as far as offers go. And that,
despite the fact that the hits are not happening the way they should have been.
But then, ‘Sarfarosh’ and ‘Rangeela’ don’t happen everyday.

Aamir knows that but he still
hopes to add his first home production, ‘Lagaan’ to that list. It’s a
story of pre-Partition days at a time when the stories of that era have long had
their innings in Bollywood. However, knowing Aamir, it is not difficult to get
effected by his confidence in the project which could well go down the way Deepa
Mehta’s ‘1947-Earth’ did. But even if it does, says the star, he would at
least have the satisfaction of experimenting with an idea. Something that can’t
be said of lot of other top stars with their own home productions!